Picture Dump

So thankful that they both love books.

Silly boy

 

Valentine's Day loot

 

Where's Amelia?

Birthday Party fun.

 

Her first wreck.

Hungry Hungry Hippos.

The Easter Story told by Amelia

Sunday we had our first of three Easter get togethers.  It was snowing and in the 30's.  Therefore the kids got to hunt eggs in the basement.  They still had a blast.  I had Amelia tell the Easter story it went something very close to this.
Me: Amelia can you tell them the story of Easter?
Amelia: The Easter story is about the Easter Bunny.
Me: No, tell them the Jesus Easter story.
Amelia: Jesus saw three crosses and decided to get on the cross.
Me: And then what?
Amelia: Then the stone. (She's referring to the tomb)
Me: And then what?
Amelia: Then the angel came and talked to the two Mary's.
Me: Then what?
Amelia: Then they saw Jesus and He went to Heaven.
I think she did a great job.  :)

They found an old helmet to play with.

 

When did she get so BIG?

 

Ahhhhh...

Waiting to hunt!

He found the basket of candy.

Love these boys

Menu Monday

Monday - Tonight I'm going with quick and simple, Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes.  This is my first time making Sloppy Joes with Ground Turkey so I'm looking forward to them.  Only 208 calories for a quarter pound of meat!

Tuesday - I'm trying to new pork chop recipe from pinterest tonight.  Here's the link. 

Wednesday - My favorite day of the week, Momma Day!  We're going to hit the library and visit a new baby today!  I'm going to make homemade Cashew Chicken for dinner.

Thursday - I'm planning on throwing some chicken breast in the crock pot with some BBQ sauce and having BBQ'd Chicken sandwiches for dinner.  It's crazy zumba and dance night so it's easy dinner.

Friday - Going to try another new pinterest recipe for dinner tonight, Chicken pesto.  I'm also going to throw this in the crock pot over night for breakfast Saturday morning.  I can't wait to try it!

Saturday - We're having Easter at my Mom's house, we haven't decided on a menu yet, this crazy weather is holding us up.  We really want to grill something, but who knows if it's going to be snowing or sunny.

Sunday - EASTER.  Lois is cooking lunch and I will probably over-eat.  :) 

Inspecting the Gate

Last  Saturday Nathan put up a couple of gates on our land.  So me and the kids had a fun day.  We went to Springfield and went to Target and the mall.  I felt pretty brave venturing out to the mall with both kids, but they did really well and rode in the stroller.  The hardest part about having both kids alone is when Amelia has to go to the bathroom.  But we managed.  So we did a little shopping, had lunch at chick-fila on the mall and the kids got to both build-a-bear.  On the way home both kids went to sleep so I drove around and went by to check on the progress on the gates.  Of course the kids woke up as soon as I stopped and we got out to inspect the work.  :) I took some pictures of the fun.

Not sure if you can see in the picture, but they were checking out a worm.



Asher is tractor crazy.

Rock in hand.

She wanted to help fill in the holes.

A pro.



My kids are pretty awesome

I'm going to take a minute to brag about my kids.  I want to remember these stories forever, so I'm making a whole blog entry about what they have been up to lately.

- Amelia was become very independent and also very helpful.  She dresses herself daily and requires little to no help.  It's really a great thing only having to worry about getting one kid ready.  :)

Helping me shop.  :)

- We get a ton of magazines and toy advertisements in the mail.  Amelia loves to look through them all, but has recently started declaring she wants almost everything in the ad.  So we decided to teach her about saving and earning.  Nathan cut the picture out of the thing she wanted the most and glue it to a piece of paper with 25 boxes, the cost of the toy.  She earned stickers to put in the boxes, when they were full she was able to get the toy. 

 

- Asher is a good little helper as well, I've taught him to go get his own diaper when he needs it changed.  I'll say "Asher go get a diaper" and he'll take off running and brings back a diaper for me.  :)

- We've always sang at our house, so naturally both kids like singing too.  Well when it's time to go we sing the end of the Down by the Station song.  Either Nathan or I will sing, "chug chug, toot toot" and Amelia has always replied with the rest, "off we go."  Now Asher will reply "off we go" with Amelia, it's the cutest thing ever.

- Amelia has memorized John 3:16, she does really great, however God's Son is his only forgotten Son instead of begotten.  :)

 

- Amelia came running into my bathroom the other morning while was getting ready, saying "mom mom come look at your bed."  So I stepped around the corner and my bed was completely made, with all the pillows in the right spot and everything, she did an excellent job.

- When Asher wants something he'll come find me and grab my hand and lead me to what he wants or needs, which is usually the pantry because he wants a snack.  The other day after he lead me to the pantry and I opened it up to see what he wanted he pointed to a cake mix and said "cake cake."  What can I say he boy loves his sweets.  I did not make him cake either, just so you know.

- I posted this on facebook the other day, but I also want to document it here.  :)  Amelia looks at the other day and says, "Hey Mom, do you know the muffin man?"  She was 100% seriously, no joking about it. 

- The kids and I were at chick fila the other day and a man sat down in the booth across from us.  The man just happened to be wearing a cowboy hat.  Asher looks at the man, and continues to stare for a minute then he starts saying, "ee, ii, ee, ii, oooo."  How can you not laugh at that???

 

I seriously love my kids, they are such a blessing to us daily.  They make our lives complete.  Completely crazy at times, but still wonderful. 

Menu Monday

Monday - Zumba night!  I'm making our leftover roast into BBQ Beef Sandwiches.  What's your favorite BBQ sauce?  We always love Sweet Baby Ray's.

Tuesday - Buffalo Chicken.  This is a SUPER easy week night meal.  I'm not sure where this recipe came from, or if I just made it up.  But, all I do it chunk up some boneless skinless chicken breast and put it in a Ziploc baggie and pour some Frank's buffalo sauce over it until it's all coated.  I'll do this in the morning before I go to work, then just stick in the fridge and let it marinated all day. To cook just spray a cookie sheet with Pam and turn your oven onto broil.  Stick the chicken in the oven and broil for 10-12 minutes.  Bam it's done.  We sometimes make buffalo chicken wraps, other times we just eat the chicken dipped in a bit of ranch.  Super yummy and super easy.  Tonight I'll probably make some sort of potato to go with it.

Wednesday - Simple Hamburger Steak is the plan tonight.  Fried hamburger patty's, rice and brown gravy.  Simple, easy, good comfort food tonight.

Thursday - Let the chaos ensue, it's dance and zumba take, therefore it's take out night.

Friday - I get a night out with one of my best friends!  I can not wait.  The kids will eat dinner at the babysitters house, so I suppose Nathan is on his own.  :)

Saturday - Breakfast for dinner.   I've seriously been craving good ole biscuits and gravy, so tonight we're going to have breakfast for dinner.  The kids will probably be confused.

Sunday - Early Easter celebration at my dads.  I'm sure we'll have something yummy.  I'm planning on taking desert. 

Eighteen Months

Little dude had his eighteen month checkup yesterday.  I seriously can't believe he's eighteen months old already.  I makes me sad to think we only have another checkup at 2 years then it's once a year from here on out.  Where does the time go??

He's very consistent in his stats. He's been in these percentiles every checkup. 
- 24 lbs 10 ounces. 30%
- 34 inches. 90%
- 49 inches head circumference. 80%

Asher's an energetic, independent, sweet little boy.  He brings such joy and entertainment to our lives.  He LOVES his sissy, he follows and mimics her every move.  He's very much a daddy's boy, which makes me sad some days.  He loves playing with trucks, car, balls, and recently we've started letting him play with play doh while supervised and he likes this very much.  He enjoys looking at and reading books as well. 
He's very stronged willed, once he sits his mind to something there's no changing it.  He hates being told No.
He's an okay eater.  Nothing like Amelia was, but he does ok.  Sweets are his favorite!
He's a big talker, repeating almost everything. He's also a great singer, it's so fun to hear him.
He likes Mickey Mouse, Diego and Trains.
Asher is FINALLY sleeping from 7pm until 6 am consistently.  I'm afraid he's trying to give up his morning nap, but as for now he's still on two naps.  One around 9-9:30 and the second one around 12-1.
He's at such a fun age, I can literaly see his mind figuring things out, it's so much fun.  :)

He's a good little helper.

Eighteen months old.

Riding with sissy.

I work out.

Isn't this picture so funny? He was just standing there with his hands on his hips.

Cheeseball.

Menu Monday

Monday - Today ended up being a momma day since Asher had his eighteen month check up. So we'll be having Chicken Fried Rice. I always use this recipe and add mixed veggies with it!

Tuesday - Tonight we're having tilapia and baked potatoes. I usually just season our fish with some spices and broil it, nothing too special here.

Wednesday - Another new Pinterest recipe tonight, Southwest Chicken. Hope it's good!

Thursday - Zumba and dance night results in take-out at this house.

Friday - Enchiladas are on the menu tonight. I'm pretty excited!! No recipe here, enchiladas are pretty easy peasy if you ask me.

Saturday - I'm going to the ole stand by, baked spaghetti pie. We love this recipe.

Sunday - Roast, carrots and potatoes, in the crock pot.  Easy and yum!!

Fun Filled Weekend

We had a great weekend with lots of fun involved!

(Sorry it's already Thursday, I had pictures on my real camera I had to upload) 

Saturday morning our church was showing the new Veggie Tales movie so we took the kids. Our youth minister worked hard to make this possible and we had about 100 people show up. Lots of which don't normally attend our church, which is a great thing! The kids enjoyed both the movie and the popcorn. :)

Saturday afternoon we planned a double family date with some friends of ours and their two kids. First up was jumpmania and let me tell you that place was INSANE! Amelia AND Asher loved it, much to our dismay. Just kidding. I love seeing the kids enjoying themselves, places like that just scare me for multiple reasons. After jumping until the kids were hot and sweaty we went and had dinner at Olive Garden! Yum! And we may it may not have stopped for Andy's on the way home! :)

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday was combined service at Church since it was the first Sunday of the month and Amelia and her Sunday School class and the class right above them age wise sang during service. Amelia did wonderfully. After church we had lunch and did some quick grocery shopping, only to end the evening relaxing and playing at home.

We had a pretty great weekend. I'm so incredibly blessed.

Menu Monday

So it's sort of a boring week menu wise, but here it is. 

Monday - It's Zumba night, we'll be having soft tacos.

Tuesday - Don't judge, we're having plain and simple hamburger helper. I was struggling when meal planning obviously. :)

Wednesday - I'm excited to eat this chicken again, I've made it one other time and it was delish! I found it on Pinterest, where else?  I'm going to pair it with these oven roasted potatoes.  Don't they look amazing?!?

Thursday - Zumba day again.  We're probably just grab something out.  Not only is it Zumba, but it's dance night for Amelia so that leaves me little to no time to cook anything.   

Friday - I'm going to dinner and a movie with my bestie, so the kids and Nathan shall have pizza. 

Saturday - I'm going to attempt this meatloaf recipe. I've only ever made one meatloaf recipe, and I love it so I continue making it, but I'm branching out and trying something different. Eek!

Sunday - Baked Penne, another new pinterest recipe.  It looks super yummy, I hope it is!